Urban Hawks

July 28, 2007December 15, 2020Other Birds

Least Sandpipers

The light was much better on Saturday and I finally got some nice photographs of the Least Sandpipers on The Lake mud flat.

July 24, 2007December 23, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Pale Male was in his favorite spots behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday evening. He was on the look out for prey stopping in some of favorite hunting perches but didn’t actually do any hunting while I was there.

July 22, 2007December 22, 2020Other Birds

Sandpipers Find The Lake Construction Mud Flat

The Park’s Department has dammed a section of The Lake, to allow for construction in the North Lobe. In doing so, they’ve created a large mud flat that Sandpipers are enjoying. The fall migrations starts first for shorebirds, so we’re seeing Sandpipers now. On Sunday, Ben Cacace saw four Sandpiper species, Solitary, Spotted, Semipalmated and Least.

I photographed three species on Sunday, Solitary, Spotted and Least.

July 22, 2007December 22, 2020Other Birds

Dinner Duck In Central Park

What’s a commercial bred of duck doing in Central Park? For years there have been Pekin /Mallard duck hybrids up by the Pool, who always fool first year birders who try to find them in their guides. But on Sunday, I saw a new pure bred farm duck in the fenced in area south of Turtle Pond.

Is this duck an escapee from a slaughter house or an Easter chick who grew too big for a household?

July 21, 2007December 17, 2020Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Late Afternoon Around The Ballfields

The 888 fledgling is being encouraged to do some hunting by her parents. But she’s not doing that great at hunting yet. It takes practice and she’ll get the hang of it soon.

Here she is perched on the northern side of the ballfields. I’m calling her a she because of the size of the band Bobby Horvath used to band her, a 7D. This is the largest size used for Red-tails, so the odds are 99% that she’s a she. Her band number is 1207-98290.

The more I learn about Bobby Horvath, the more I admire him. Last Wednesday, he was involved with an Osprey rescue where with the help with a friend, two good samaritans and a ladder borrowed from a local fire house, he freed a young fledgling who had gotten caught in rope and fishing tackle that its parents had used to build the nest. The bird dislocated its hip hanging upside down and thrashing to get free, so Bobby has been nursing it back to health.

She then moved to the southern edge of the ballfields.

She picked up what looked like leftovers and began to eat them. She perched on a fence post near the playgrounds and attracted a crowd of about thirty.

Afterwords, she flew back one of her favorite trees near the Ballfield Café and tried to take a brief nap.

July 21, 2007December 23, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Saturday Afternoon In Morningside Park

I found one of the St. John the Divine fledglings in the southern section of Morningside Park on early Saturday afternoon. The fledgling did some practice hunting, but didn’t catch anything while I was there.